At the present time nurses, paramedics and doctors have two options to transfer a patient from one bed or stretcher to another bed or stretcher. The preferred option is the use of a hard board. In order to do this transfer they roll the patient onto the hard board, then pull the hard board onto the destination bed, and finally pull the hard board from under the patient. When a hard board is not available, the transfer of the patient is done by physically lifting the patient in a bed sheet from one bed to the other. This process becomes a major problem when the patient is big and heavy, requiring the use of many people to do the transfers, as well as exposing the transferring team to back injuries.
When patients are in pain, they do not wish to be moved, even a simple roll onto a hard board may be painful. When moving is absolutely necessary the patient wants for the process to be as smooth and as pain free as possible.
One of the problems with using hard boards is that hospitals usually do not have them easily available. Hard boards are costly, inflexible, and difficult to store efficiently.
Another problem with using hard boards is that because they are not disposable and require to be decontaminated every time they are used on a patient, they become a potential high risk hygiene control.
To overcome these shortcomings of existing options, the present invention is developed to produce an effective means to facilitate the transfer of patients from one bed (or stretcher) to another bed (or stretcher). The invention described here will provide simple access of an easy to use, flexible, disposable and inexpensive transfer device.
The flexibility of our transferring device will ensure a smooth and minimal pain free transfer. This is accomplish because the transfer device is easily contoured to the patient's body with a minimum of effort and movement on the patient's part.